In weft knitting machines with numerous aligned knitting needles on a needle bed, provided with swinging sinkers in between the knitting needles, when a knitting needle is raised to knit a new stitch on a previously knitted stitch hooked by a stitching needle in the course of knitting performed by the knitting machine, a pressing device such as a swinging sinker or a stitch presser for pressing a stitch or a piece of knitted fabric is provided so as to prevent the stitch hooked by the knitting needle from being raised along with the raising motion of the knitting needle.
In the swinging sinker, a knitting yarn retaining section is formed and the knitting yarn of the stitch is retained by the effect of the knitting yarn retaining section. For example, when the knitting operation is performed, the hooked stitch is thereby able to pass over a position for clearing a knocking-over.
However, it has been difficult for the knitting yarn retaining section of the swinging sinker to retain the stitch in the case of knitting rib stitches using a needle bed in which the knitting needles face each other in a front to back arrangement, and further, in the case of knitting a rib-knitted fabric in which the length of a jump-stitch between knitting needles is short, or the like.
In addition, it is also considered possible to retain the stitch by providing a stitch pressing device at a carriage side that would function as a presser bar applied to a mouth portion of the knitting area. However, because there is only a slight gap in a mouth portion in which part of the swinging sinker is protruding thereto, it is extremely difficult to provide the presser bar in the mouth portion of the weft knitting machine such that the presser bar performs an advancing and retracting motion, in which a directional switching of the reciprocating motion of the carriage is performed at an arbitrary position on the needle bed.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, the applicant of the present invention previously proposed a weft knitting machine, in which the swinging sinker and the presser bar advance and retract to the mouth portion of the needle bed in a relative movement in, for example, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 6-72347.
That is, the weft knitting machine described in Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 6-72347, proposed previously, has a sinker swinging motion control mechanism and a stitch presser control mechanism that move together and are installed on a carriage, and a stitch bar being supported by the stitch presser control mechanism is disposed adjacent to an upper end of the carriage such that the presser bar can be moved by the motion of the stitch presser control mechanism in an advancing and retracting motion toward the mouth portion disposed adjacent to a top portion of the needle bed. In addition, the sinker is swung by the sinker swinging motion control mechanism that interlocks with the stitch presser control mechanism. Further, the sinker and the presser bar are controlled to be driven in the advancing and retracting motion relative to each other when a directional switching of the reciprocating motion of the carriage is performed.
According to the weft knitting machine proposed previously by the inventor of the present invention, the advancing and retracting motion of the presser bar toward the mouth portion performed by the stitch presser control mechanism in conjunction with the sinker swinging motion control mechanism is performed by directional switching of the rotation of a motor. Therefore, in the course of knitting the fabric, the presser bar of the stitch presser following the advancing direction of the carriage is advanced into the mouth portion.
Consequently, when a malfunction, such as damage of a knitting cam in the carriage or the like, occurs in the course of knitting and electric power supplied to the motor is stopped resulting in a suspension of the operation of the weft knitting machine, the presser bar remains advanced into the mouth portion.
When the presser bar of the stitch presser remains advanced into the mouth portion, the carriage is moved toward the left side so as to allow the replacement of the knitting cam in the carriage and is moved across a bracket supporting a turning rail. In addition, when the carriage is dismounted from the weft knitting machine, it is possible for the presser bar to collide with the bracket.
In such a case, there is a problem in that it is troublesome to resume operation, because the presser bar is required to be detached by dismantling the same or the carriage is required to be moved while manually rotating a motor shaft while continuing to prevent the collision of the presser bar with the bracket.
The present invention was made in light of the above-described problems. The object of the present invention is that the carriage can be easily moved when the carriage is required to be moved across the bracket to allow the replacement of the knitting cam in the carriage, or the like, in a state in which the electric power being supplied to the motor has been stopped.